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ADVERTORIAL
THE VET WHO FORMULATED JOPE:
Big Breed Dogs Are Getting More Good Years, And It Starts Years Before Anything Shows
Shepherd, Lab, Golden and Rottweiler hips wear for years before anything shows on a walk. This short article explains what is doing it, and what the parents who start early are doing differently.
4.7 stars | 48,000+ dogs
By Dr. Christine Colamonico, DVM
Last Updated 16, July 2026
Hi. My name is Dr. Christine Colamonico and I am a Veterinarian.
The letters that reach my desk come from parents in more than 48,000 American homes, and they tell me what is happening to their dogs.
Throughout my career I have seen dogs come in with every kind of joint problem.
Dogs who slow down on the second half of the walk.
Dogs who stop taking the stairs.
Dogs who cannot get up off a kitchen floor without help.
You name it.
From a dog who hesitates half a second at the car door. To a dog whose family bought a ramp.
And then it is a dog mom carrying a seventy pound dog out to the yard so he can go to the bathroom
I have watched people do that. In the rain. At two in the morning. Without a word of complaint, because they love him.
And every one of them said some version of the same thing to me.
He was fine last year.
For most of my career I thought I understood this. Cartilage wears out. Big dogs wear it out faster. Manage it when it shows up.
Then I read the research on young dogs.
Researchers X rayed two hundred dogs who were not limping. Walking fine. Nothing to report to anybody.
Most of them had joint damage anyway.
Not old dogs. Not sick dogs. Ordinary dogs whose parents would have told you there was nothing wrong.
Which meant the thing vets started treating at nine had been running since two, and nobody in the room had known.
The real cause is not only wear and tear
What if I told you the damage in your dog's hips is not his joints wearing out?
What if it is his body doing it to him?
It sounds mad. It is true, and it has a name we use in practice.
Cartilage under pressure sheds tiny flecks of itself into the joint. Too small to see, too small to feel.
His immune system finds those flecks and does not recognise them. It reads them as something that should not be in there. So it goes after the cartilage they came off.
Round and round, every single day, from about the time he stops being a puppy.
His body is not wearing out. It is shooting at itself, and it has the wrong target.
Now here is the bad news if you own one of these four.
Your dog sheds more of those flecks than most, and he starts earlier. Same two reasons in all four breeds.
His hip sits looser in its socket, so his weight lands on a small patch of cartilage instead of spreading over the whole surface. And he went from a couple of pounds to seventy in a year, which means his bones finished growing before the soft tissue holding them together caught up.
Every one of them was bred not to quit.
A Shepherd was bred to work a full day and then keep working. A Labrador was bred to go back into freezing water again and again because you asked him to. A Rottweiler drove cattle over the Alps and hauled the butcher’s cart home afterwards. A Golden was bred to be the dog who never says no to anybody.
So when it starts to go, he does the only thing he knows. He carries on.
None of that is a fault and there is nothing to fix. It is what these dogs are, and it is most of why you love him.
It is also why the hip registry grades roughly one in five screened Shepherds, Goldens and Rottweilers with problems. Labradors do better, about one in eight. And on elbows the Rottweiler is worse than any breed on the register, with more than a third of screened dogs affected.
And in German Shepherds, vets in Britain who went back through the records found more of them were lost to their joints and bones than to cancer.
More than cancer.
This is why the bag from the pet shop does nothing
Almost every joint chew on that shelf runs on one idea. Cartilage is wearing out, so feed him more of
what cartilage is made of. That is glucosamine and chondroitin, and it is most of the aisle.
Tidy idea. Wrong problem
You can hand a builder bricks all day. It does nothing about the man pulling the wall down.
Which is why parents write to me saying they gave a joint chew every morning for six years and never
saw a thing. They were not careless. They were sold the wrong idea.
There is a better way to spend those six years.
Teaching his body to stand down, in under ten seconds a day
There is a way to tell an immune system it has the wrong target. It is called oral tolerance, and it is not
new. It is how the body learns that food is food and not an invader.
It works with a specific kind of collagen called UC-II®.
Ordinary collagen gets broken apart in the stomach. UC-II® survives it. So it arrives at his immune system whole and recognisable, in a small daily amount, over and over.
It calls off the fire instead of restocking the bricks.
Put head to head against glucosamine and chondroitin in a university trial, dogs on UC-II® put more weight through the sore leg and moved better.
Which is where Dr. Jeremy comes in. We met in vet school and we had been having
the same conversation for years, in two different practices, about parents who did everything right and still ended up with a seven year old who could not manage the stairs.
Introducing Jope Hip And Joint Chews
UC-II® to call off the friendly fire. Omega 3 from anchovy oil, which has more evidence behind it in dogs
than anything else in the category. And curcumin, which we include for what it does in the laboratory and in real life as one of the best antioxidants from plants.
I am not going to claim more than that for it.
✔
If there is an older dog in the house too, same chew, same rule by weight. It does its best work started
early and it does plenty of good started late.
Jope is in more than 48,000 American homes and holds 4.7 stars across verified reviews. These are parents who started before anything was wrong.
Still going up in one motion.
The honest problem with starting now. You will not see it work.
That is the bargain with prevention, in dogs and in people. You never get the moment. You get a ten
year old who still takes the stairs two at a time, and no way of knowing what he would have been
otherwise.
Here is what to do next
Most parents take the three month supply, for three reasons.
There is no risk in trying. There is one in waiting.
It is about the kids who want him on the walk. It is about the years at the other end, the ones where he
is grey around the muzzle and still shoving his head under your hand at the door.
That is what is being decided right now, while he is two and flying and nothing is wrong.
He is fine today.
That is the whole reason to start.
Start your dog on Jope today
48,000+ dogs
Start your dog on Jope
My family and I were so lucky enough to be able to do a trial study for this Jope Hip & Joint Dog Chews that we're actually still in. I have to say, the very first week blew me away, bc by the end of the week my baby was able to get up more comfortably after sleeping, she was able to jump off the couch and able to use her pets steps to get on our bed again. She had quit using them all together and would always make me pick her up, but that's so not the case anymore. I see so much spunk back in my Monkster that it's completely filled me with such joy and happiness. My fur babies, especially my 13 year old in November Monkey, is my sidekick and never leaves my side. She is connected to Mommy's left hip seriously LoL. Wouldn't have it any other way. Jope has truly brought the life back in my senior baby and I'm so beyond thankful! Dr. Christen is super friendly,engaging and full of help. This has truly been such a joy. I highly recommend these Hip and Joint Dog Chews if your baby is struggling in any way whatsoever. This has been a miracle truly. Who wouldn't want their baby to be protected by this amazing chew!?! Top notch and high quality. Get out there and get yours today, bc I promise you, you will NOT regret it. Here's to all the bouncing, playful pup pups out there who I wish all the best and success in their new adventures!
My senior dog loves these and I love the science behind UC II Collagen. It was recommended by his vet and physical therapist to keep him feeling his best for as long as possible! I recommend these to everyone I know.
Had been given these for o er 6 months and didnt think I saw any improvement. Switched to a blue lipped mussel product that claimed it was good for joints. 3 months on that and saw a dramatic decline in alertness and sleep patterns had changed, slept more. There is something to this formula. We're just a week back into a bag and I already see a difference. My dog as a bit mire energy a d shows interest in his toys again. Thank you Jope.
2 months 2x a day was well worth it for Ann..she was lethargic and not running at all. She hunts hard every bird season since she was a puppy so I was ready to try things as a supplement that truly work. Jope beats anything else I tried. It's
Great start!
We’ve been using Jope for about a month now. While it’s still a bit too early to see a dramatic change, I’ve definitely noticed some clear improvement in my dog’s movement and energy levels. Very happy with the progress so far and excited to see how she does with continued use!
Disclaimer:
Jope is a dietary supplement for companion animals and is not a substitute for a balanced diet. Follow the recommendations on petjope.com and the dosages advised. If your pet is on medication or suffers from a medical condition, consult a veterinarian. If your pet shows unusual symptoms while using Jope, contact customer care. If symptoms persist or you are in doubt, stop using the product and consult your veterinarian. This article is an advertorial written by veterinarians at Jope.
